Trump administration pushes governmentwide NDA for federal employees

Key Points:

• The Trump administration's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has proposed a standardized non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for all federal employees to prevent leaks of sensitive government information, covering internal operations, personnel matters, and pre-decisional materials.
• The NDA would be optional for agencies to implement but could become mandatory, applying to current and new employees, with signed agreements stored in official personnel files; violations could lead to disciplinary actions including termination and legal penalties.
• OPM emphasized that the NDA would not restrict whistleblower protections, allowing disclosures of fraud, waste, or abuse to Congress or inspectors general, but the American Federation of Government Employees criticized the proposal as an attempt to silence civil servants.
• The proposal follows recent leaks of government documents and aligns with other OPM efforts to tighten suitability and fitness standards for federal employees, raising concerns about potential chilling effects on employee willingness to report wrongdoing.
• Legal experts warn the broad scope of the NDA could lead to litigation over employee rights, including First Amendment protections, and OPM is seeking public feedback on the NDA's scope, clarity, and enforcement before finalizing the rule.